Who Reads the Round Table?

By ELLIOT AVE-LALLEMANT

The Round Table may be the greatest campus newspaper to ever exist, or maybe not, since most people on campus don’t actually read it.

But why is this? It’s no secret that the rapid development of technology has changed the way that people read (or don’t read). The attention span of the average person is 8.25 seconds, so maybe people don’t have the focus necessary to read a full article in paper. But maybe you’re an optimist. Maybe, you think that people would want to stay informed about events happening on the Beloit College campus. 

You might actually be right. People do read the Round Table. 

So what are people reading? For students like Joseph Delphey’27 and Ben Xiong’25, reading the paper involves just leafing through and skimming the articles of the week’s issue. “I kinda pick and choose what I want to read.” says Xiong. “The topic just has to be interesting to me. Sometimes, though, I find myself reading stuff that I didn’t think I was going to read, like the Op-Ed’s.” 

Delphey makes a good point in saying that his classes are very reading heavy, which is why reading the paper can feel a little daunting; “I feel like I’m doing a lot of reading for class,” he tells me, “if I’m reading so much for class, I want to do something else in my free time. It’s still a fun break though.” 

For other students like Mason Sorensen’25 and David Robinson’27, reading the Round Table is not a normal habit. “I would read them if I was doing nothing else, which is rare,” says Sorensen “I would read articles my friends have written, but otherwise [I don’t read the paper].” Sorensenalso cites his distaste for reading; “I think my attention span is pretty good, but when it comes to reading, I have no patience.” For new students like Robinson, issues of the Round Table don’t really stand out to him all that much; “Color catches my attention. Sometimes, I’ll see the paper, but it doesn’t really jump out at me.” For the paper to be more engaging, Sorensen suggested that the Round Table adds more games like crossword puzzles to the back, and Robinson suggests that a more colorful front page would make an issue stand out to him more. 

In all of the interviews, many people were unaware of the Round Table website’s existence, or had barely had any experience with it. Demir Kasapoglu’28 told me that he prefers the physical copy, but he also thinks that the website has its benefits. “I feel like online is more available, because you don’t have to go to a place to pick it up or have it delivered.” 

In addition to many student readers, professors also seem to be reading the Round Table too. History professor Rob LaFluer occasionally reads the paper. LaFluer’s love of print journalism has kept him a steady reader of the paper. “With the decline of print journalism, you just don’t see things like this anymore. So when I see something like [the Round Table], I love it. I love it more because it’s paper. If it was online, I don’t think I would [read it].” LaFlueralways loves to read the out-of-context professor quotes section. 

But with the decline of print journalism, how can the Round Table keep people engaged? Xiong suggests that we utilize the Round Table’s online presence through Instagram or the website. “You should have the articles you post about on Instagram directly linked to the post, that’ll definitely boost engagement.”

 “You should understand the psychology of consumers and target the demographic of Round Table readers, and then make a strategy based on that.” says Taman Azad’27, the founding president of the Beloit Marketing Club. 

In short, there are actually a lot of people who look at the paper, but there could be more. With things like adding more puzzles and a more eye-catching front page, to creating a bigger online presence, there are many things the Round Table could do to get more readers. If there’s one thing for certain, though, it’s that people love to read the back.

_{Featured image: Elliot Ave-Lallemant’27}